Practice of mothers on home management of fever among under five children in selected area of Dadra and Nagar Haveli
Sharma Priya1*, Kumari Mukesh2
1Assistant Professor, Shri Vinoba Bhave College of Nursing, Silvassa.
2M. Sc Nursing Student, Shri Vinoba Bhave College of Nursing, Silvassa.
*Corresponding Author E-mail: priya00975@gmail.com
ABSTRACT:
Background: Suffering from minor ailments is the commonest and frequent episode in childhood experiences. Most of the children consistently suffer from infectious diseases. The main primary symptom in any infection is fever. The majority of the mothers are not aware of the fever control measures. Fever is one of the major markers of an illness and one of the frequently reported causes of under five children’s caretakers visits to healthcare facilities.1. Methods: A quantitative research method was selected. A descriptive research design was adopted for this study. The samples for the study were 50 mothers of under five children which were selected by using non- probability purposive sampling technique. Results: The results showed that greater percentage 36% of samples are in the age group of 16-22 year. Only 35.3% of the mothers were having good practice on home management of Fever and 64.7% of the mothers were having poor practice on home management of Fever. Conclusion: The study concluded that very few mothers were having good practice on home management of Fever. Health awareness programme need to be given to Mothers of Under five Children in selected area of Dadra and Nagar Haveli.
KEYWORDS: ractice, Mothers of Under Five Children, Home Management, Fever.
INTRODUCTION:
Fever may be a sign of both infectious and non-infectious disorders, occurs commonly in children and makes their parents unduly worried and panic as they perceived it a danger ailment.1 A fever in itself is not an illness. It is a method by which the body fights infections, hindering the production of viruses and bacteria.2 This increases the neutrophil production and T-lymphocyte proliferation, helping the body’s acute-phase reaction.
Most parents do not know the impact of fever and have a high level of anxiety and fear regarding its possible complications. Fever is a common symptom in children. It is usually related to a rapidly self-limiting illness and its main effect is discomfort.3
Fever is a commonest medical problem in children for which mothers to seek immediate medical care and the parents experience “fever phobia”. However, this symptom contributes to overloaded offices of general practitioners (GPs) and office-based paediatricians as well as clinics and paediatric emergency departments.4 Misconceptions by parents and healthcare professionals (HPs) about rare serious causes such as severe bacterial infections beginning with isolated fever and specific complications of fever (e.g., convulsions) have resulted in a ‘‘phobia’’ about this symptom.5 Consequently, this study sets out to assess the practice of mothers regarding home management of fever among under five children living in selected area of Dadra and Nagar Haveli.
MATERIAL AND METHODS:
Descriptive study was conducted in Galonda village of Dadra and Nagar Haveli. Samples were selected by using non probability purposive sampling during December, 2017 and mothers of under five children were included as study population. After oral consent from each study respondents, data was collected from 50 study subjects who were participated in study. Structured interview schedule method was used to collect data from study respondents by utilizing structured practice questionnaire that includes baseline characteristics as well as practice checklist related to home management of Fever. The response with Yes was marked as practice score ‘1’ and with NO as ‘0’ for variables under study.
The maximum and minimum practice score was obtained and respondents were categorized into good and poor practice. Practice Score and demographic characteristics were interpreted by using frequency tables and Chi-square test was applied to find out statistical association between Practice and Baseline characteristics.
RESULTS:
The table I shows, that greater percentage 36% of samples are in the age group of 16-22 year, 60% of the samples have studied up to primary education and 38% of the samples have one child and 32% of samples have two children.
Table I: Distribution of respondents according to Baseline Characteristics. n =50
|
Characteristics |
Category |
Frequency |
% |
|
Age |
16-22 year |
18 |
36% |
|
23-29 year |
17 |
34% |
|
|
30-36 year |
15 |
30% |
|
|
37 and above |
0 |
0% |
|
|
Education |
No formal education |
16 |
32% |
|
Pre scholar |
0 |
0% |
|
|
Primary education |
30 |
60% |
|
|
High education |
02 |
4% |
|
|
Secondary education |
02 |
4% |
|
|
Graduation |
0 |
0% |
|
|
Post graduation |
0 |
0% |
|
|
Occupation |
House wife |
42 |
84% |
|
Govt. job |
0 |
0% |
|
|
Private job |
8 |
16% |
|
|
Others |
0 |
0% |
|
|
Religion |
Hindu |
28 |
56% |
|
Muslim |
0 |
0% |
|
|
Christian |
22 |
44% |
|
|
Others |
0 |
0% |
|
|
Marital Status |
Unmarried |
4 |
8% |
|
Married |
46 |
92% |
|
|
Divorced |
0 |
0% |
|
|
Widowed |
0 |
0% |
|
|
Number of Children |
One |
19 |
38% |
|
Two |
16 |
32% |
|
|
Three |
14 |
28% |
|
|
More than three |
1 |
2% |
|
|
Type of family |
Nuclear |
26 |
52% |
|
Joint |
15 |
30% |
|
|
Extended nuclear |
9 |
18% |
|
|
Monthly income |
≤10,000 |
0 |
0% |
|
10,001 – 20,000 |
35 |
70% |
|
|
20,001 - 30,000 |
13 |
26% |
|
|
˃30,000 |
2 |
4% |
Table II: Practice of Mothers on Home Management of Fever among Under five Children. n = 50
|
Aspects |
Total Items |
Level of Practice |
|
|
Good |
Poor |
||
|
Fever Case Management |
7 |
8.3% |
91.7% |
|
Breast Feeding Practice |
3 |
34.3% |
65.7% |
|
Water Supply |
2 |
51% |
49% |
|
Hygiene Practice |
3 |
39.8% |
60.2% |
|
Total |
15 |
35.3% |
64.7% |
Table III. Association of practice on home management of Fever with the selected Baseline Characteristics. n = 50
|
Characteristics |
Category |
≤ mean |
˃ mean |
P value |
|
Age group |
16-22 year |
10 |
8 |
0.104 |
|
23-29 year |
9 |
8 |
||
|
30-36 year |
6 |
9 |
||
|
37 and above |
0 |
0 |
||
|
Education |
No formal education |
10 |
6 |
0.129 |
|
Pre scholar |
0 |
0 |
||
|
Primary education |
18 |
12 |
||
|
High education |
1 |
1 |
||
|
Secondary education |
0 |
2 |
||
|
Graduation |
0 |
0 |
||
|
Occupation |
House wife |
20 |
22 |
0.418 |
|
Govt. job |
0 |
0 |
||
|
Private job |
5 |
3 |
||
|
Others |
0 |
0 |
||
|
Number of Children |
One |
8 |
6 |
0.281 |
|
Two |
7 |
9 |
||
|
Three |
8 |
6 |
||
|
More than three |
1 |
0 |
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:
The authors are grateful to the authorities of Shri Vinoba Bhave College of Nursing, Silvassa for the facilities.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST:
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
REFERENCES:
1. Khan A, H Khan, Said AB, et al. Knowledge Attitudes and practice of parents regarding Fever in children and its management at home. J Educ Health Promot.2014 Aug 28; 3: 97.
2. Prakash M. Naregal et al. Effectiveness of Health Education on Knowledge of Mothers of Under Five Children Regarding Management of Children Suffering from Pyrexia Vol 9(1) | 2017 | www.informaticsjournals.com/index.php/ajprhc.
3. George J, Joseph J Study to Assess the Effectiveness of Structured Teaching Programme Regarding Knowledge on Management of Febrile Convulsion among Mothers of under Five Children International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR) ISSN (Online): 2319-7064
4. Schmitt B. Fever phobia, misconceptions of parents about fevers. Am J Dis Child. 1980; 134(2):176‐81.
5. Kramer MS, Naimark L, Leduc DG. Parental fever phobia and its correlates. Pediatric. 1985;75(6):1110‐3.
Received on 14.09.2019 Modified on 21.10.2019
Accepted on 06.12.2019 ©A&V Publications All right reserved
Int. J. of Advances in Nur. Management. 2020; 8(1):67-68.
DOI: 10.5958/2454-2652.2020.00016.5